The Religious Movements Homepage: Black Jews

History

Black Judaism emerged in 1896 with the street preaching of William Saunders Crowdy in Lawrence, Kansas. Crowdy, a railroad employee, had begun to have visionary experiences in 1893 that suggested to him that Christian churches were not pleasing to God and that a return to Judaism was in order. To that end he founded a movement with the unlikely name Church of God and Saints of Christ; “Christ” refers to the Jewish messiah whose arrival is still expected. Crowdy, himself an African American, taught that Africans were descended from the lost tribes of Israel and as such were true Jews. That teaching has been adopted by most later Black Jewish groups. Crowdy initially spread his new faith in Kansas towns, but eventually focused his work on the east coast; during his lifetime a headquarters was established at Belleville, near Portsmouth, Virginia. Most local churches of the movement are now in eastern cities. The movement later suffered a schism, and a separate group established a headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland group has moved somewhat closer to Christian doctrine and practice, but it still retains such Jewish elements as a Saturday Sabbath. The Belleville group remains substantially Jewish in its beliefs and practices, although it is not accepted as authentically Jewish by America’s mainstream Jews.

In the early twentieth century black nationalism became a potent force among African Americans. One facet of the affirmation of African-American identity was, for some, the rejection of institutions that were held to be compromised by their complicity in slavery. Because Christianity was the religion of the slaveowners and was forced on African Americans, some nationalists held, a new religion that affirmed black equality needed to replace it. Judaism fit the bill perfectly, with its strong emphasis on freedom and its central image of the Exodus–a story of people escaping from slavery and eventually founding their own nation. The growing public awareness of the Jews of Ethiopia (sometimes called “Falashas”), who claimed to be descended from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, also spurred the growth of Black Judaism; many Black Jews claimed to be descended from the ancient Ethiopians and therefore of a true Jewish lineage.

After Crowdy’s pioneering work other independent Black Jewish movements were founded. About 1900 Warien Roberson founded the Temple of the Gospel of the Kingdom in Virginia. Roberson promoted a version of Orthodox Judaism; his followers learned Yiddish and adopted a variety of Jewish ritual practices. However, in 1926 he pleaded guilty to violating a law prohibiting the transportation of women across state lines for “immoral purposes” following the revelation that he had fathered several children by young female followers. Roberson went to prison and the movement soon dissipated.

F. S. Cherry founded a Black Jewish movement called the Church of God in Philadelphia in 1915. Theologically it mixed Judaism and Christianity, although the Jewish Bible and the Talmud were considered the essential scriptures. Several Jewish practices and prohibitions were observed by Cherry’s flock. The movement has been reported to survive under the leadership of Cherry’s son, but little information about it has been disseminated.

Rabbi Wentworth A. Matthew was the longtime leader of one of the most prominent of the Black Jewish groups, the Commandment Keepers Congregation of the Living God, in New York City. Like several other Black Jewish leaders he taught that his followers were descended from the Ethiopian Jews. The use of the Hebrew language and the observance of a number of Jewish practices characterizes the movement. Matthew also taught what he called Kabbalistic Science, which apparently had as much to do with the folk magic found among Southern African Americans as it did with the Jewish mystical tradition.

Several smaller groups of Black Jews have also existed at various times, usually as purely local organizations. Among them, the Black Hebrew Israelites of Yahweh Ben Yahweh have their own profile on this website.

Mention also needs to be made of the Rastafarians, who also have their own profile on this website. Emerging gradually in the 1930s and 40s in Jamaica, the Rastas are usually classified at Black Jews, although their theology and social characteristics set them apart in important ways from others in that category.

In the 1910s a new religiosity that became known as Black Islam emerged with the founding of the Moorish Science Temple of America by Noble Drew Ali, formerly Timothy Drew. Several other African-American Muslim movements followed, most notably the Nation of Islam, which flourished under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad, formerly Elijah Poole, from the 1930s until his death in 1975. The various Black Muslims had teachings in some ways similar to those of the Black Jews, and they shared with the Black Jews the sense of providing a new, freedom-oriented religion that would replace the slave religion of Christianity among African Americans. To a fair degree they displaced the Black Jews in the world of alternative African-American religions.

Profile | History | Beliefs and Rituals | Links | Bibliography

Beliefs, Rituals, and Festivals

Principal Beliefs:

Although most Black Jews do not have formal ties to traditional Judaism, they have typically believed themselves to be descended from the Ethiopian Jews, whose Judaism has been recognized by mainstream white Jews as fully legitimate, even though geographic and cultural isolation has meant that their Jewish theology and practice differ somewhat from the patterns of the majority. Some of the Black Jewish teachers have added doctrines of black superiority similar to those long expounded by the Nation of Islam: Wentworth Matthew, for example, taught that the era of white ascendancy was coming to an end and that the true (black) Jews would soon be restored to their rightful position of world leadership. F. S. Cherry taught that God, who is black, created black original humans; white people descended from someone who was cursed.

Generally, Black Jews have upheld traditional Jewish scriptures, although some have made some use of the New Testament as well. Most have held to the primacy of the Torah (first five books of the Bible), and generally to the rest of the Jewish Bible as well. Some also use the Talmud, but many do not. Some leaders have written their own works that have authoritative, if not scriptural, status; Crowdy, of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, for example, published a book called The Bible Gospel Told: The Revelation of God Revealed, which provides essential guidance on beliefs and practices.

Black Jews are monotheists, in some cases believing that God is black and in others believing that the deity cannot be constrained within any category of color. The theme of God’s role in liberating the oppressed from bondage is strong in all of the groups.

Individual groups have various creeds and teachings of their own. The Church of God and Saints of Christ, for example, has a list of central precepts called the Seven Keys:

Observance of a wide range of precepts governing personal and community conduct has traditionally been at least as important as belief in Judaism, and most Black Jewish groups have followed that emphasis on conduct, although they have been selective and sometimes innovative about the ways in which traditions are observed.

Most of the Black Jewish founders have come from Christian backgrounds, and in varying degrees Christian doctrines and practices tend to be mixed with Judaism. Jesus is sometimes spoken of, either as the coming Messiah or as a historic champion of racial equality. Specific groups sometimes espouse unique doctrines; Roberson, of the Temple of the Gospel of the Kingdom, for example, taught that his followers would live forever, leading his critics to label his movement the “Live Ever, Die Never” society.

Major Rituals and Festivals:

Most of the Black Jewish groups have quite consciously striven to emulate traditional Judaism in their rituals and practices. They observe a Saturday Sabbath. Sabbath rituals are in some cases conducted in Hebrew. Sometimes traditional Jewish garments, such as skullcaps and prayer shawls, are worn.

Generally, the Black Jews observe the Jewish annual ritual calendar, although not all of the Jewish holidays, and especially the minor ones, are usually observed. For many of the groups the major holiday and festival is Passover, whose celebration can last the traditional eight days. In the Belleville branch of Church of God and Saints of Christ, Passover is a sort of national homecoming that features a highly ceremonial Seder. The Beth Elohim Hebrew Congregation, descended from Matthew’s Commandment Keepers, notes that it “observes” the holidays of Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, but simply “recognizes” lesser holidays.

Most of the Black Jewish groups refer to their leaders as rabbis. Rabbis generally have both ritual and pastoral leadership roles, not unlike clergy of virtually all religions.

Profile | History | Beliefs and Rituals | Links | Bibliography

Controversies

The chief ongoing controversy regarding the Black Jews has to do with their legitimacy as Jews. The “regular” Jews–the Ashkenazim and Sephardim who essentially constitute world Jewry–do not recognize any of the African-American groups as legitimately Jewish, although sometimes cordial relations between the two have existed, and some traditional Jews have helped Black Jews learn traditional Jewish ways. The standard Jewish position has been that to be Jewish one must have a Jewish mother or be formally converted by a rabbi with appropriate standing. Most Black Jews do not conform to either of those requirements. The controversy came to a head when some hundreds of American Black Jews arrived in Israel and sought permanent residency there under the Law of Return, which says that all Jews are welcome to settle in Israel. The Hebrew Israelite Community, under the leadership of Ben Ammi Ben Israel, left the United States (most members were from Chicago and Detroit) in 1967, lived for two and a half years in Liberia, and then entered Israel in 1969. Israel’s position was that since the Hebrew Israelites were unwilling to undergo traditional conversion, they had no standing as Jews. After years of unpleasant confrontations the group was finally allowed to stay. They remain in Israel today, several hundred strong.

Profile | History | Beliefs and Rituals | Links | Bibliography

Internet Links

http://member.aol.com/Blackjews is the Web site of the Beth Elohim Hebrew Congregation, St. Albans, Queens, New York.

http://www.sistahspace.com/jewish/rrsrh.html provides a brief historical sketch of certain Black Jews in the United States.

http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/bronxbeat/2001/040901/jews0409_01.html presenta a journalist’s look at a black synagogue in the South Bronx.

Profile | History | Beliefs and Rituals | Links | Bibliography

Research Bibliography

Brotz, Howard. The Black Jews of Harlem: Negro Nationalism and the Dilemmas of Negro Leadership. New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964.

Hare, A. Paul, ed. The Hebrew Israelite Community. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1998.

Landing, James E. Black Judaism: Story of an American Movement. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2001.

Wynia, Elly. The Church of God and Saints of Christ: The Rise of Black Jews. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994.

Profile | History | Beliefs and Rituals | Links | Bibliography

Created by Timothy Miller, University of Kansas
Last Modified: 03/14/04

Name:	"Black Jews" is a generic term applying to several distinct religious groups.
Founder:	William Saunders Crowdy was the founder of the first American Black Jewish movement.
Date and Place of Birth:	1847; Charlotte Hall, St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
Year Founded:	1896; other groups were founded in subsequent years.
Sacred or Revered Texts:	Most Black Jewish groups use the Hebrew scriptures in English (equivalent to the Protestant Old Testament). Some also use the Talmud.
Size of Group:	The various Black Jewish groups probably have an aggregate membership in the tens of thousands.
Religious Family:	Middle Eastern.
Remarks: